Whipper Snappers and Old Timers

[JohnD]

"Whipper snappers" was a very old expression when I was just a lad. It was a term old timers used to describe young people in a semi-derogatory, envious way. 

Envious of their youth and derogatory of their inexperience / lack of wisdom.

Time passes so swiftly that it seems only a few short years ago I was a whipper snapper who overheard a very old timer using that expression. 

But now I see what they meant and how they felt.

When we all were young we didn't realize how little we knew. When we gain wisdom and experience, we learn how little we still know...

but we know much more now than we did then...

when we thought we knew it all...

And you can't tell anyone anything, especially today's whipper snappers... anymore than old timers could when I was a whipper snapper.

Writer and satirist Erma Bombeck  (1927 - 1996) once spoke of rite of passage when you are the old timer in the shotgun seat of the car and

the whipper snapper driver puts a cautious arm out in front of you when they have to slam on the brakes. She remembered being the whipper snapper

driver with her mother in the shotgun seat. And in hardly anytime at all being the old timer in the shotgun seat herself when her daughter had to slam on the brakes

and extend her arm out to protect her mother.

"So soon?" she commented.  

[BibleStudent100]

4 hours ago, JohnD said:

Time passes so swiftly that it seems only a few short years ago I was a whipper snapper who overheard a very old timer using that expression.

A young whipper-snapper was I, but now that I am in the old-timer status, I can say that time does pass by quickly!

I try to be modest and implement "wisdom" in the way I live my life (Proverbs 11:2) by not trying to deny or ignore my additional years that place me square in the target of my "days of distress." Modesty in what I can accomplish, coupled with a positive, non-defeatist attitude helps me to avoid this result: "If you become discouraged in the day of distress, your strength will be meager” (Proverbs 24:10). Instead, a modest person shows wisdom, making the best of a situation.
 

[kwikphilly]

Blessings Brother...

I'm not sure if it was different in NYC but the term" whipper snapper" was also used as a term of endearment and humor - For example if one of our elders was trying their hand at something,doing it backwards(& slowly),one of us energetic,smart Alec( in a fun way)youngsters would come along,take over and "bam" it was done in the blink of an eye----"Why you little whipper snapper,look at that",our Old Uncle might say- proud of us as he could be

And yeah,in a derogatory manner the ancient old lady down the block would yell,"You whipper snappers just ran over my flowers with those bicycles"!lol,in NY " all of you's"

Those were good times Brother,people actually spoke to one another and made eye contact back then! They were not fixated on a device- good,bad or indifferent there was a communicative society

[Dennis1209]

Those are interesting points to ponder. Einstein had some intriguing theories about time, not that I would understand them.

James 4:14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

In my early teens, I could not wait to get my driver’s license, vote, make my own decisions, etc. Time seemed to take “forever.”

Now at seventy years old, it seems time flies too fast. Does it only seem that way, or could our “time” and age be advancing more quickly? Is it our perspective and personal experience or something else?

When asked, when was the last time you did this or that? Without exception and unintentionally, I always grossly underestimate that amount of time.

I just had that birthday, paid those annual premiums, renewed my licenses the other day, etc. With the severe weather, the insurance company asks, when was your roof last replaced? I answered about three years ago, which turns out to have been ten+ years ago. A bunch of people are making time errors.

I question if this phenomenon is a matter of perception of the clock and calendar or if we experience time differently. Yep, young whippersnapper to old fogie in no time. More knowledgeable, but physically cannot act on that knowledge anymore. Is that a paradox or a conundrum?

Does anyone else feel the older you get, the faster the clock advances?

[FJK]

31 minutes ago, Dennis1209 said:

I question if this phenomenon is a matter of perception of the clock and calendar or if we experience time differently.

When you are 1 year old, 1 year represents 100% of your life.

When you are 100 years old, 1 year represents 1% of you life.

This makes each year a shorter period of experience in relation to your overall perception of time in your life.